First Night of King John at Holy Sepulchre Church, Northampton (24th April, 2015)

Karen, our administrator, was at the first night of the Globe’s King John at the Holy Sepulchre Church in Northampton.

Here is Karen’s report.

The queue started just gone 7pm and everyone seemed quite excited to be at the first performance at The Holy Sepulchre Church. There is an exhibition in the Church Hall about the history of Northampton and the places King John visited during his reign and I, along with other people visited this before joining the queue to enter the Church.

When the doors were opened we filed past the body of King Richard I, this felt we were mourners at his funeral and encouraged to pause as if to pay our respects. The church was lit by candles and looked beautiful which set the atmosphere perfectly.

The action took place on the shape of a cross, there was not a raised stage, and the pews were all down the length of it with the throne at one end. There are different price bands and so it depended on your ticket price to where you could choose to sit, I was sat near the throne. The whole of the cross was used so everyone could see the majority of the action though where I was sat some of my view was obscured by the pew ends.

It was thrilling to watch especially as the actors were just inches away from the audience so during a lot of the Bastard’s speeches Alex made eye contact with members of the audience as if talking to just them.

The wonderful music by Orlando Gough along with the candlelight in a beautiful church makes this, in the words of Neil Norman in his Express review, “a major theatrical event!”